Phew what a 24 hours. The theme which sounds like a judgement from the I-Ching, is: after much anxiety one can fall on one’s feet. I must say the torrential rain forecast yesterday evening sent me into a tizzy but it made me prepare for the day and I think it was worth it (preparing, not the tizzy which is entirely unproductive). I got up early. It had been raining in the night and the tent was wet but it wasn’t raining when I packed up. It feels like it weighs a ton when it’s wet but I had a cuppa and some chocolate cake and was ready to roll out just after 9am, with my waterproofs at hand and liberal anti fog applied to everything required to see where I am going. I made good progress north via Freiburg and it wasn’t till after ugly Strasbourg that it started to rain and after filling with petrol a yoghurt and couple of croissants from Carrefore at a service station settled my stomach. Under some cover I pulled on the huge overall. Traffic was fairly light apart from in Strasbourg with only some trucks spraying huge amounts of water and caravans for me to overtake. The rain got worse after Saarbruken which is when I realised my boots were getting full of water.
Todtnau to Trier at EveryTrail

When I finally peeled my gloves off I could see that the dye had turned my hands blue. I thought it was from cold at first. I finally got to Trier thanks to the GPS and pulled up completely dripping outside last weeks hotel only to be told they were fully booked but they remembered me. He recommended me the Hotel Astoria just around the corner thank goodness and they had a double room (the manageress has just come in to my room to confiscate the extra bedding strangely, perhaps they are worried that I might try to smuggle an extra guest in, strange though as I’ve paid for a double room – the information clearly forbids guests to take visitors into their rooms). This place is strange. It has an English Victorian name but downstairs is definately an Indian style but the wallpaper in the room is rather twee floral print.

Bertha is parked in one of those underground car parks with a steep slope out and an exit card reader requiring dexterity to get out in the morning with a heavy bike. Nice news I was able to change my ferry crossing to tomorrow night so don’t have to linger somewhere I don’t want to be in the rain. It’s a bit of a treck up to Hook of Holland from here, over 250 miles but I have all day to do it and hopefully while the forecast still shows rain, it’s not as heavy as today. Once I arrived safely in bricks and mortar and under a roof here, the rain got even worse. The other nice touch was the greeting that for my €79 I get a drink on the house, it could be a beer a Fanta or a glass of champaign. Dear reader, which do you think I chose, and subsequently sipped with complimentary nuts on the sofa with Indian design cushions feeling very pleased indeed not to be camping? They have a rather natty cocktail bar here.

So now everything is spread out drying including my map of Germany and my boots perched on the just working radiator, also I’ve been trying to dry out my gloves with the hair dryer. I can hear people scurrying about down on the street in the rain under umbrellas. I just realised how tired I am.

After supper of the breakfast I bought this morning and a nap on the lovely bed, I can see some blue sky outside. It’s half past eight. Time for a quick walk to clear my rather thumping head.